So what's going on, everybody?

Hello, everyone.

What's happening?

How's everybody doing today?

You know what we just found out?

One year anniversary.

It is the truth response on YouTube's birthday.

One year.

One year.

Ta da.

We've done it.

We made it a whole year.

Yep.

That means you've got plenty of episodes that you can check out on our YouTube page.

Years worth of years.

Yeah, we've kept on it.

So thank you guys for making that possible.

Yes, yes.

And continuing to comment and like, and share and all that stuff.

Because especially the comments.

We've gotten a lot of comments lately.

We cherish all of them.

Continue to bring it.

Bring them.

Bring the action.

Bring the action.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So.

So today we are continuing on in our series.

Yes, on Spiritual Warfare.

Yes, on Spiritual Warfare.

Did we introduce ourselves?

Oh, no, I'm Derek.

You didn't know.

I'm Matt.

For those.

And welcome for those who have not been with us for the past year.

Derek and Matt.

And yes, we are in a series about spiritual warfare.

This is episode three.

Episode three.

And it's not the Phantom Menace.

That.

That was episode one.

Right, right.

Of Star Wars.

Nobody can remember what episode two was.

And then.

Dude, please tell me you don't know 7, 8 and 9.

Let's see the Force Awakens, the Last Jedi and the Rise of Skywalker.

That's so dumb.

You should not know those three.

Those three were garbage.

I watched like, Star wars makes it.

See, this is the, this is the reason like, that they make movies is for people like me because, like, you know, they're like, we should make another Star wars movie.

And everybody goes, including myself would be like, do they really need to do that?

But I'm gonna go watch it.

Like, it would have been okay if it would have been like, new material.

But it's not the, the series that they, they canceled or whatever the, the newest one they had done that they canceled off where it was a whole different, like, time in the Star wars universe.

Yeah.

Was wonderful.

Well, you know, it's.

Doesn't even have to be Star Wars.

Like, so for instance, they're making another Jurassic World movie.

And my first thought was, like, really?

Another one?

Didn't they finish it really well?

And.

But then I next thought was like, well, they need popcorn.

Cause, like, I'm gonna go see this mess.

It's gonna be great.

It was.

No, no.

Okay.

Like, the second three Jurassic park movies were garbage.

What?

They were garbage.

The CGI was so bad.

Like.

Cause you gotta think with the techniques that they used from the first three.

And then they did CGI in the second three.

It's like they felt real in the first three and the second three.

You know, that CGI animation.

So anyways, anyways, let's get back on too many threes.

Okay.

Like, this is episode three, Spiritual Warfare.

This is different.

This one's gonna feel different because this is gonna be an episode three that really feels like Star wars math.

Because it's.

Yes, listen, listen, you've gone 1, 2.

And then on our third episode, we're going to the first part of the armor.

Oh, look at that.

I see what you did there.

See, see?

Yeah.

So as he's indicated, so when we started out this, we wanted to give you kind of an overall.

So for those who haven't seen episode one, you might want to look just kind of an overall on Spiritual Warfare and what that is.

And we kind of defined it a bit and talked about it a bit.

I know it took us a little bit to get into it in episode one, but.

But I think there was a lot of good stuff in there.

And then episode two, once again, if you haven't watched it, please go back.

We appreciate that we define the enemy in spiritual warfare, who our enemy is and what the enemy is all about.

So we did a lot of talking about that.

We had some great comments on that as well.

But today when we talked about what spiritual warfare was, we also talked about some elements of the armor that we can wear as Christians.

You find it in Ephesians, Ephesians 6.

And so we're going to start to break that down.

Every week we're going to take a different part of the armor and we're going to do them in order.

So as you guys are following along with us, please, I invite you personally get into your bibles, read Ephesians 6, read about the armor and, and the different parts, and study along with us.

This might be a great place to, as you're going through and you're having questions about it, to listen to these episodes, maybe even go back afterwards and pick out the parts that really helped you, because we're gonna really try to give a lot to each part.

Right?

Yeah.

And if we miss something, please share, let us know.

We don't have a problem coming back and being like, yo, one of our listeners caught something.

You know, definitely, definitely do that with this first piece of the armor.

I wanna give you a little piece of truth.

Right.

It's the belt of truth is what we're gonna be talking about today.

We're suiting up.

We're suiting up.

Getting that Iron man costume up.

Right.

Suit up, Captain America.

Captain America.

Yeah.

Suit up.

Gotta suit.

Suit up.

So the first piece of truth is I wanna remind you all that our enemy is not each other.

It's not flesh and blood.

Yep.

And that is a big piece of spiritual warfare that we have to hold on to as far as truth goes.

So when have you seen truth make a real difference in your life or in a situation?

Oh, good question.

Truth would make a real difference in my life or situation.

Um.

Hmm.

Man, you know, I feel so attacked right now, but.

No, I'm just kidding.

You should, you should.

I'm attacking you.

That's with the young kids if they're not ready or if they're not hearing what they're doing.

You were unprepared for that.

They.

Yeah, because my brain was already moving ahead.

I skipped over this.

Yeah.

So I'd say truth.

That made a big difference for me, was realizing.

So I.

There was a relationship that I was in back in the day, and it wasn't a good one for me.

And when things ended badly, I thought, I like to blame myself.

I should have known, like, it.

I wasn't ultimately the problem in it, but I still wanted to blame myself.

I still wanted to go through that.

Well, I.

Obviously there was something about me.

Blah, blah, blah.

I took myself through the wringer.

And then the same things that caused the problems in that relationship caused problems in another relationship with that person.

Did the same thing twice, basically.

And when I saw that, it was like that truth set me free.

It's like, look, it was that.

It was that, like, why are you still trying to blame yourself when that was it?

And so truth made a big difference for me in that way.

And I'm leaving a lot of the details out, but, I mean, being able to grab on to the truth of a situation is fantastic.

Yeah, it's.

It's life giving.

Yeah.

I used to struggle with depression pretty hard.

And part of the thing that fed into my depression was I felt like I wasn't good at anything.

Right.

Like there's nothing I'm good or great at, you know, Like I'm decent at some, a lot of things.

Right.

But I'd say I'm not good.

I'm not well.

Okay.

I always felt like I wasn't good or great at anything.

Right.

So one day I was having this, this conversation with Nick and Derek, two of the pastors here at Rise, and.

And they were like, dude, it's because you're the expediter, I was like, what?

And they're like, yeah, you know, how everything is supposed to look, and you come in, you get things going to where it needs to be, and then you hand it off to the person who is great at it.

You're like, one of the most important pieces in the puzzle.

And I was like, oh, I can see that.

Because God equips me in different ways for different times, for different things.

Like, it's crazy.

He gave me the ability to play drums out of nowhere.

One, like, for a season of my life.

He has done crazy things with the tech here and just all kinds of stuff in my life.

So that piece of truth, like, really changed how I viewed myself and how God views me, even, you know, like, that I do have a place, I do have a purpose.

And even though I'm not, like, crazy talented in this one area, like, it doesn't mean that God doesn't have me exactly where he wants me and is using me the way that I need to be used.

So that's kind of my little something.

So, yeah, we're going to be talking about the belt of truth today.

The belt of Truth.

Welcome to the Truth response.

All right, I'll pray today.

Okay.

Thank you, Lord, for this day.

Thank you for truth.

It actually is one of the most important things that.

That you have given us.

And I appreciate just the time that we get to have where we get to talk focused solely on the truth.

Lord, I just pray that you reveal new truth to us every day that we didn't realize was there.

God, I pray that you guide this conversation on truth to give a good basis for those who are listening.

And I just pray that we can all just start donning this belt that you have us in our armor.

God, thank you for your grace, your love, and your mercy, as always.

It's in your precious and holy name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So, yeah, we're talking about the belt of Truth.

And so this one comes from Ephesians, as I said, Ephesians 6, verse 14 is where it starts here.

And it's actually the beginning of this verse that we're talking about.

It says, stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth.

In other translations, girded up with truth.

It's the same thing.

It's just worded differently.

You wanted to talk about some of the Romans, what it meant for Romans armor, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So he would have been talking to people who would have been in a militaristic society.

They would have really resonated with.

With the terminology.

But the belt was one of the most important pieces because it held literally everything together.

It gave them the ability to keep their weapons.

It gave them the ability to run and be able to move in what they're in.

Yeah, it was the thing that held all the armor there and stable.

So it really was the most centerpiece, most important piece, because, I mean, you could figure out a way to deal with not having, you know, a piece, a chain link somewhere in the armor.

But if you don't have the belt, like, all of it falls kind of apart.

And so truth being the center of that, I think, makes a whole lot of sense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, that's really good.

And I love how you.

I was hoping you were gonna say it, but it does.

It really just.

It's kind of like the central piece.

It is the thing that holds it all together.

And some people would look, even today, we might look at a belt like, okay, yeah, you put a belt on.

Most people don't even wear belts often.

Most of the time, you know, I don't know how.

Well, I don't know how they do.

That, but, I mean, it happens.

But the thing is, this was an integral thing.

It was much needed, necessary at all times.

So, yeah, I think it's really good to keep that in mind.

This is what we're based.

It's good that it starts this way.

And I'm glad that we get to start as we're unpacking this, because we're trying to lay the foundation of what it is.

You know what I mean?

Of what it is to be suited up for battle, so to speak, for the spiritual warfare battle that we're all in.

And so, yeah, so the belt of truth.

Yeah.

So what do you think Paul meant by truth in this passage?

You think he meant, like, you know, steak is better than burgers.

Do you think it.

Burgers are better than steak?

Like, what is truth?

What?

First off, burgers are definitely better than steak, but we won't go there.

Oh, man, he wants to eat.

Wait, wait.

Fries or tater tots?

Oh, I love tots.

Fries are good.

But see, I love all things potatoes.

So, like, okay, well, you know.

Yeah, pierogies.

Pierogies are good.

Yeah, there you go.

Okay, we'll just end on that one.

Okay, yeah, pierogies are good.

See, that's not the truth that he's talking about.

He's talking about more fundamental truths.

First off, let's just define that.

The person that creates the universe gets to define what truth Is right, okay, so that's probably the easiest thing to start with.

But the truths that I think that he's talking about are a little bit more foundational.

So these are the kind of truths that, number one, we're accepting the truth that we do have a creator, God, who is involved with us.

He's not removed from us.

He didn't just set the world in motion then step away.

He wants to be in relationship with us and he cares, in fact loves us.

So that's a foundational truth there, you know.

And I know a big question is why?

Why would a God who's that powerful care about something so insignificant?

Like it's like us caring or not caring about ants.

And I'm like, okay, but why do we have to know the answer to that?

You know what I mean?

Like, I know that we've got some reasons biblically, but outside of the Bible, do you have to have a reason for loving and caring about someone or something in particular?

You get to choose that, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Sometimes in this life we get the choice, right?

Why?

But that's actually, that's actually what makes God doing this significant, right?

You see, that's one of the most amazing things about creation when you come to think of it.

God, an all powerful being, right?

And as we understand him now, triune, right?

So Father, Son, Holy Spirit, you know, three in one kind of thing, right?

Like God did not need us, right?

But he wanted us, so he chose us.

Why did he create us?

Because he chose to and he wanted to.

That is significant.

It wasn't an accident.

It wasn't something he, you know, just one day on a whim, he chose this path with us, to be with us.

He chose to have a relationship with us from the get go.

That's the whole reason that we're here, right?

That's pretty amazing.

It's really big.

But yeah, beyond that, you got the next truth that you know Jesus is the Son of God.

It's the truth.

If you are accepting the truth of who Jesus is, that he was who he said he was, that who he claimed to be, who he accepted to be, then that's foundational.

And even to the extent of like you have to believe exactly what you just said or else, like if you take away just the idea that Jesus was God.

Right?

Yeah, it changes.

You can't also then like say he was a good anything because he would have then been a liar.

And you know what I mean?

Like, it messes up a whole lot of, of good solid truth and good Solid morals that he then had taught throughout, you know, his time here.

So that.

That whole.

That whole piece of like, the truth that Jesus is God is vital.

Yeah.

And so those are foundational truths.

Speaking of which, this is a good time.

It's a good time.

So one of the things I talked about, I think I talked about on both episodes, I talked about it in the spiritual warfare, and I talked about it, what it is, and I think I talked about it last week.

But there was a period of time in my life where I went through something pretty harsh.

And then I had to look over some foundational truths, some truths that I think are so important.

And so I printed them out so that I could go over them.

I think this is a good place to do it because as we're talking and trying to define these truths, these are the kind of things that are important to be strapping to the middle of us, to hold everything together.

So what it was is that when I was battling with the lies of the enemy, I had to conquer them and battle them back with these kinds of truths.

Truth number one is that God is fully in control of every tiny detail.

He's in control of this life.

This is an amazingly created world that's very complex.

It's got a lot of moving parts, and it is complex.

But God is ultimately in control of everything.

And so that's this important thing to keep in mind.

Sometimes we feel out of control and it's easiest to believe that God can also be out of control, but he's not.

Well, I think sometimes we also conflate the idea that if God is in control, he's also causing things, and that's also not causing.

And allowing for reasoning is a difference.

Right, right.

So that was the first one.

Second one.

God knows everything that is going on and is not surprised by anything, which is another thing that goes hand in hand with that one.

It's like, okay, God's in.

Ultimately in control of every detail and he knows everything that's going on and is not surprised.

He can see it and he is going to be able to work it for your good.

He's going to allow things to happen that need to happen for reasons that sometimes we can't even.

Well, and if you think about it, we see things differently when we see things coming.

Yeah.

Then when we react.

Absolutely.

So him knowing what's going to happen.

Yeah.

Allows him to be able to plan.

Yeah.

And shape and mold.

Just like if we were to do it, to know what was coming, we could plan and shape and Mold things where things happen.

So that's something.

I think.

I think that's great.

I think that's a great.

Yeah.

Number three.

God loves you deeply.

This is important.

He does love you, God.

It's interesting that people sometimes wonder if God loves them and question it and allow the devil to trick us into thinking that we can't be loved or that we don't deserve love.

And there is some truth because we've all fallen short, but God still loves us.

And another thing that people misunderstand sometimes is that God loves you every day the same.

He's loved you when you were his enemy.

That's why he came to die for us.

And he loves you when you come to him, but he loves you the same.

And that's tricky for some people.

Wouldn't he love me more when I come to him?

Well, would that make it so that he hated you before?

If he hated you before, he wouldn't have died.

For he loves you.

And it's also something that's important to keep in mind because as we go and look at our brothers and sisters, as we said, this is a battle not of flesh.

This is a battle of something beyond that.

It should make it easier for us to understand that God loves that person just as he loves you.

And that's a deep.

That's an all encompassing agape is everything kind of love.

That's a truth that we need to hold on to.

Number four is God is fully present with you.

This is hard for so many people when things are going rough because we feel alone sometimes.

It's when we're not feeling like we're hearing from God.

You know, we're not sensing that presence.

It feels like he's distant, he's not there, but he's there.

He is always here with us.

His spirit is among us, lives inside of us.

He's present in his creation.

This is not an absentee God, as I said before.

This is a very present God.

And you know, sometimes he may not speak to you, but it may not be a negative reason.

Sometimes.

Sometimes the teacher is silent during the test.

Sometimes he needs to let you figure some stuff out.

Well, and I think a lot of times that situation is very much.

He's taking you into the wilderness because the wilderness is where God speaks to his people, Right?

So I think that is him leading you into the wilderness so that he can.

He can clearly talk to you.

Sometimes we won't listen if there's distractions.

If we've got our slave labor right.

You know, if we're drudging on our day to day working our jobs.

Sometimes we just don't.

It's too busy to listen.

And so sometimes that silence is him guiding us into the wilderness so that he can speak to us.

Yep.

And so number five goes right in line with that one.

God has not abandoned you.

Right.

He's still present.

He has not abandoned you.

He is going to stick with you because he loves you that much.

Number six is that when we're going through hard times, God intends good to come from all of this.

He ultimately has, as we've put, a plan.

Sometimes it's really hard to keep in mind.

Sometimes things are going so rough, but we cannot understand the things that he's got in place.

Ultimately he doesn't want bad things, he wants good things.

And if he's.

And if the God who's in creative, the creative mind that put everything in motion and is ultimately still in control of every minute detail, if his ultimate goal is still good, then he expects good to come from everything.

And so that means there's always hope.

Yeah.

The best example of that is Joseph in the Old Testament when he is, you know, sold into slavery by his brothers and then he's, you know, thrown in jail and left for dead and all these things like that.

We gotta remember that took place over 20 plus years.

Yeah.

That wasn't like a.

In one year all of these things transpired.

Then he saw the fruit.

Right.

Like he just kept going and knew that God was with him in the midst of it.

And, and after all of that time had passed, I mean, it's kind of weird to think.

How old are you?

40?

41.

41.

Oh man.

What was it like over the last 20 years going from 20 to 40, like 21 to 41.

You know what I mean?

A lot of stuff happens.

There's a lot that's happened.

Right.

So we have to remember that just because we don't see the good right after doesn't mean that he's not got a huge plan.

Yeah.

And so that leads right into the next one.

Number seven.

God is at work in 10,000 ways.

And you might be aware of three of them.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, that's a solid follow up.

Yeah, it's, you know, we tend to, you know, we're very visual and experiential creatures.

We, you know, this is what we can perceive.

And so this is therefore my truth.

But that it goes beyond that.

There's ways that God's working.

I pointed out before, my wife loves to point out that When I get a little frustrated because traffic's still backed up or I'm held up for something, you know, she's like, this could have happened because God didn't want you in a road at this particular time.

You could have blown a tire.

You could have gotten in an accident.

Something could have.

You know, God can be at work in ways that we can't even see possible.

There was the.

I think I brought it up on here before, but there was the woman at the airport last year that it just so happened I was there with my wife at the exact time that these people come in.

And it was very good for her.

Well, she was telling us how amazing it was to have that conversation at that time about God.

And then to think how that all got set up.

So, for instance, you know, my wife having to go on a business trip, which is why she knew about that restaurant, that she never usually went on business trips, but for some reason she went on a business trip.

She was like, okay.

And she went there.

And that was so before that and the trip that I planned on, which is why we were in there, which was before that.

Like this kind of pieces that God starts to lay because he's got a plan.

My story in the last, you know, me changing jobs.

Oh, yeah.

Like, it was in the works a year before I had even had a thought of it before it was placed in my wife's mind.

There was like, pieces of the puzzle coming together.

And it was a frustration for the people it was happening with.

And to until this point where God starts revealing that he's got a big plan and all of it is for his glory.

And all of it he's been planning for a year before all of it.

And I pointed out there's some things that I went through in my life which I thought were some of the worst things I could go through.

But on the other end of it, seeing what God brought me to later, it's like, thank God those things happened.

Which is a weird turn of a way to look at things.

But, like, it's true.

Like, sometimes God's working something so much better, and we have no idea.

We get lost in the.

In the.

In the right now.

No regrets.

No regrets.

So number eight is really important.

God is not through with you.

I'm going to say that one more time.

God is not through with you.

A lot of people come to Christ or they won't come to Christ because they feel like they have done something bad that's too bad, or they've lived a life that's just so not acceptable.

Or even if they come to Christ, they come to Christ and then they mess up and they're like, well, I think God blew it.

God's not through with you.

God still wants you to continue chase him.

His forgiveness is beyond any forgiveness that we've ever experienced in this world.

It is what the definition of forgiving looks like.

And he is not through with you.

He wants to continue to work with you and lead you forward in your life in a relationship with him.

And he won't be through with you.

Foot.

Yeah.

Number nine.

God has plans for you.

And if you have your family and he will use pain that you go through as part of his process.

That is.

That is something that as we.

As you go out in the world and you have.

And you've been through stuff with your family where it's like, this seems hard, like with your daughter, you're like, what is going on here?

Yeah.

But yet now there's things that happen through that.

You've spoken about how your prayer life and different things.

Like, it's part of sometimes he's going to use all this as part of his process to help us become better.

Yeah.

And it's sometimes that's frustrating, admittedly, from our perspective.

But the guy knows everything.

And so once again, going back, he can use anything.

It's all part of the process.

Number 10.

God knows exactly how to get where he wants you to be, and he knows how to get you there.

He knows how to get you exactly where he wants you to be.

He knows how to get you there.

So this is important, especially when it comes to spiritual warfare.

But as you go through a life and relationship with God and relationship with Christ, we talk about what it is to try to be in God's will, to follow God's will.

If God ultimately knows where he needs you to be and where is the best place for you to be when we fight against that will is when the problems will start.

If you are trying to live your life according to God's will and he knows where he needs you to get and you keep your eyes on him.

I love the proverb.

He will make your paths straight.

Yeah.

Look at Peter climbing out of the boat in the middle of the storm.

Jesus is walking to him.

Peter's walking on water because Jesus told him to come and meet him.

And he's walking on water and walking on water until he looked away and then he started to sink.

Right.

Keeping your eyes on Jesus and what he's got going on for you will keep you above the water every time.

Number 11, God doesn't need your help to accomplish his will.

Which is a tricky thing to tell people because we like to do things.

We like things by our own hands.

But God can ultimately do things, anything he needs.

So to fight against him or to feel like you need to be in front of him, he doesn't necessarily need your help.

Now, it doesn't mean he doesn't give us jobs to do, to ask us to do, you know, give us instructions.

But ultimately he doesn't need our help to accomplish his will.

So that's an interesting thing there.

But number 12, this is where it gets good.

God purchased you.

You and your reputation belong to Him.

Everything that you are.

That's reputation with God, by the way, as well as reputation in this world.

And that that statement.

Read it again.

God purchased you.

You and your reputation belong to Him.

That is your identity.

That's your identity in Christ right there.

That is your identity.

You are His.

If you ever questioned what your identity is as a Christian, that's your identity.

Number 13.

God does not take kindly to those who mistreat his servants.

When those are out there that come against us and treat us poorly, leave that to God.

He sees it, he doesn't let it slip.

And trust that he knows the best way to work on that person too.

Absolutely.

14.

God is deepening your personal life message.

He is deepening your personal life message and will bring good fruit from it.

Thing is, with that one, you got to allow him to do it.

You got to let him work.

Sometimes you got to go through some stuff.

Sometimes you got to be broken down to be built up too.

And sometimes God's the one that's doing that.

Yeah.

And then the ultimate one.

15.

If you're going to believe all these things, the most important thing you need to understand is that God can be trusted.

He can be trusted.

He loves you, you're his, he's in control, and you can trust Him.

Every detail, every part, it's all can be trusted in Him.

Yeah.

So those are truths.

I know there were some things that I held on to, worked with.

Hopefully they're helpful to those who are listening.

But I know we had some other things we wanted to talk to.

Those are solid biblical truths, too.

I mean, if you get nothing else out of today, I mean, those are things you can hold onto that will hold your belt up, if you will.

One of the things that we need to do is defining biblical truth.

We've gone through some biblical truth, but I also want to put out there that Jesus is the truth.

That's right.

John 14:6 says, I am the way, the truth and the life.

He is the truth.

Yeah.

And God's word is truth.

That's right.

Sanctify them in truth.

Your word is truth.

John 17.

17.

Yeah.

And then living truthfully, you are putting away falsehood.

Speak the truth, speaking truth.

So speaking those things that you, you read.

Yeah.

Speaking the fact that the words of Jesus, the scripture that we have, speaking those things and living by that is huge.

That is the best way to be putting on your belt every day.

Yeah.

And as you said, it puts everything together, everything can be built on this, connects to this.

So it's really important that.

And this is why we put this on first.

We want to put this on first and understand the truth about who God is, the truth about who Christ is, so that then everything else works the way it's supposed to work.

Right.

Then you know that you are putting on the other armor properly too.

I mean it clears up all confusion and deception.

I mean even just a little sneak peek, like the helmet of salvation.

Right.

Like where does your salvation really lie?

Yeah.

You know that question, you know that the devil, the enemy like is gonna be making you question each piece.

Oh yeah.

And when you can stand and speak this is the truth, it clears all that up.

And those lies that deception doesn't get in, doesn't give you the wrong.

You don't pick up the wrong piece of armor.

You know, you don't pick up somebody else's armor.

Right.

You pick up the piece of armor that God has laid in front of you and it's so good.

Yes.

And as you pointed out before, as I was going through some of the truths that I had, is that it grounds us in our identity in Christ, which is really important is to understand who we are in him and not shifting our feelings or cultural trends, letting them come to get us.

The things that are happening in this life are going to try to shift us and sift us.

And those things don't have a chance when we're standing, anchored and grounded in the truths that we are strapping on.

Yeah.

We've gone over it time and time again so far in this series that deception is probably the biggest thing that the enemy uses.

And whether that's misdirection, because that's deception making you question that's deception or just bold faced lies, that is deception.

So that is why truth, you can't be deceived if you know the truth, you can't.

You stand Firm on that truth.

If you know the truth, you cannot be deceived.

Without truth, the rest of the armor slips.

Like we talked about, righteousness, that is God's turns into self righteousness.

Without truth.

Without truth.

Without truth, faith becomes misguided, misled, misplaced.

We talked about identity, right?

Yeah, we talked about identity.

So without truth, our identity becomes anything but God, God's son or God's children.

Sorry.

It becomes anything but that, you know, little anointed ones.

That's who we are.

Right.

So without truth, our identity wavers, our doctrine wavers, our ethics.

Oh yeah, that's a big one.

Waver.

It's okay this time, you know, like, ah, I could have done more, but.

I could have had compassion.

But, you know, they're not even gonna notice.

Yeah, like, no, those things start to waver quick.

It's amazing how quick they'll go too.

So what are some things that happens whenever believers neglect or compromise on truth?

I think it's not hard to see examples in the real world that we're living in now.

Oh yeah.

When we start to neglect or we start to make compromises, we start to basically, you're moving away from truth and you're starting and you're embracing lies.

That's the easiest way to put it.

So for instance, this is why we have, we've spoken about this before, but this is why we have problems with gender identity and whether a life is important pre birth or not.

What's the definition of marriage, all these kinds of things, the lines start to blur and things start to become a cultural norm and things start to get accepted and promoted and even celebrated.

Yeah, I want to, I'll take a bold stance and say that it's the church's fault for all of those things even becoming a thing.

And the reason I want to say that is because if you look at the movements within the Christian church, when each of those things came about, I mean, you're talking the idea that Jesus loves you.

That's all he is, is.

He is love.

Well, we're getting rid of the other, the other balance.

The balance to Jesus and God is that yes, he is love, but there's also this like, moral code that you're to live by.

Not to be a checkbox, but like, because it's what's best.

Right.

And so we neglect one for the other.

Right.

So when you know, you're talking like that whole the sexual revolution came along and all these things.

Right.

Well, even fast forward to recent years when this whole gender identity thing became a Mess.

Like look at the Methodist Church.

The United Methodist Church.

I'm calling them out.

Right.

If you're listening.

Look, you can't just be okay with things that God says is sin.

You just can't.

It's clear in scripture that he says it's sin.

And so like when you just accept that, as you know.

Well, he really meant this.

It leads to that.

We're not standing on anything.

Yeah.

All of God's truth is truth and it doesn't.

It's not a cherry picked thing.

Right.

I mean, no matter what church we want to pick on.

Does God love everyone anyway?

Yes, he does.

But you can't just use that.

Yeah.

You know, yes, he does love them, but he doesn't want them to be that way.

Right.

You know, one of the things I love, I love saying that God loves you just the way you are and is willing to accept you just the way you are, but he doesn't want you to leave.

He loves you too much to leave you that way.

Right.

Will.

Will's got a good one liner with that one.

And it's the whole like, what is it?

Oh, dang.

It's okay to not be okay, but it's not okay to stay that way.

Yeah, that's a good one.

And that is so good.

I know it's one of those cheesy one liners but.

But Will was the first one I heard say that and it was just like, oh man, that is so good.

It is so true.

It is.

But the thing is that there is a balance in it is understanding.

Because you know when Jesus simplified the commandments, basically, you know, when he was, they were asking, what's the greatest command?

He said, love the love of God with all your heart and all your strength and all your mind.

Right.

And your soul.

Okay.

Love God first and then the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

And he said that all the law and all the prophets are basically summed up in that.

Wonderful.

But yet, let's unpack that.

Because if you're going to love the Lord your God with everything you are, then you're going to love His Word and you're going to love his truth and you're going to love his law and you're going to love the way he wants you to live and his will.

And when you love someone, to reject parts of them isn't loving them.

Yeah.

So that's the first thing we need to check.

Loving your neighbor as yourself is.

If you're going to love yourself and you love God, you're going to try to live the way God says to love your neighbor as yourself.

You want them to also see the truth, embrace the truth, and live the truth.

Right.

You know, now that's all done in relationship and it's really important to do so.

But the truth still needs to have its day.

We can't cover it up and we can't compromise it and it's so easy to do so.

But I mean, I will say launch going back.

Like, do we mess up?

Yes.

Have we blown it?

No.

We can be redeemed.

We just keep turning back to God.

It's the most important thing.

Don't.

We're not giving license to sin.

The Bible makes that clear.

We're not giving license to just step away and come back whenever we want, as some people try to do in this day and age, because they believe lies.

We're also not giving license to put it off until a later date.

That's a lie that.

I don't know how it got started, but the enemy has made a really good job of giving people this idea that, oh, well, I'll get churchy and all that stuff when I get older, after I've had my funds.

Dude, you don't know when you're gone.

Okay?

Tomorrow is not promised for any of us.

We need to be on point and we need to try to get there as often as we can.

Are you going to mess up?

Yep.

Are you going to walk away and not realize you did it?

Yep.

But it doesn't matter how far you walk away from God.

Getting back to him.

Just takes one step, turn around and look at him.

He's there waiting for you the whole time, ready to redeem you, ready to bring you back, ready to start that relationship in the direction that it needs to go all over again.

Because he loves you that much.

But it takes recognizing that and embracing that.

So, no, no analogy is perfect, right?

No.

I think of Gandalf and his role in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, right?

And you see him presenting.

He's going right alongside him and he's presenting options, making them aware of what's going on.

And he's presenting options, but allowing them to choose, right?

Like, man, the storm is bad.

But what's in those.

Those mountains?

You may be.

It may be more comfortable than right now, but what's down there is so very dangerous.

And.

But it's.

It was Frodo's choice, right?

He turned to Frodo.

He's the one that got to choose.

And.

And so, like, I think of God in a grander way than that.

But like, he is there.

He sees it.

He knows what's coming.

Right?

He.

I fully believe that Gandalf knew the whole time what the choice was going to be and what the outcomes were going to be had they chosen either way.

But I feel like that is a great representation of what God is for us.

He's going.

He knows what's ahead of us, and yet he lets us choose.

And he's going to be right there the whole time with us.

And you know what?

Jesus had to die so that we could be reconciled again, so that we could be saved, so that we could be redeemed when we needed it the most.

Yeah.

And you know, he didn't.

He didn't die just yesterday.

He died knowing that we were coming.

Two thousand years later, he knew, you know, that we would still mess up.

But he died holding all that intention.

And you know what?

Like Gandalf, he rose again.

Just saying.

Just saying.

He's.

He's alive.

That's something that sets us apart from all other religions, is that we serve a God who is alive.

Yep.

And died and came back.

So he has power over death.

Yep.

If he has ultimately control over that, then, I mean, boom.

The rest of it's just child's play.

So how.

What are some practical ways that we can gird ourselves with truth?

Well, obviously, one of the easiest ways to do it is a very frequent, if not daily immersion into scripture.

We want to read scripture.

We want to surround ourselves.

If God's word is truth, then you want to be ingesting that truth as often as you can.

That can be intimidating for those who have trouble reading the Bible and new to it.

And there's so many things you can do.

The YouVersion Bible app is amazing.

It's one of the things I recommend to anyone who comes to me and tells me that they're just completely new person to the Bible and it doesn't make sense to them.

That's the Bible app.

I tell them, download this.

They have such easy reading plans that will take you step by step through some scriptures.

It's one of the best.

Get into a Bible study group and if every day is a little too intimidating to you, then try to make it three times a week.

And that can be at any time.

I would say even a verse, one verse a day.

Start somewhere where you're soaking that up.

Yeah.

Reading the Bible three times a week has incredible effects on the body.

People are by percentage happier, more optimistic.

They are, they get through situations Easier and without difficulty, they're less frustrated.

In some cases, people sleep better.

For some would say jokingly that it's because they read the Bible to go to sleep, especially in numbers, in Leviticus.

But no, I mean, it's.

If you want a positive outlook on your life, if you want things to change, start changing for the better.

Scripture has a way of doing that that is, well, nothing short of a miracle, because it is the living Word.

God is in His Word, it is his truth.

That's also, as we pointed out, the number one way that God communicates with us or to us is through His Word.

That is His Word.

Some people want to call it a love letter to the believer or love letter to the world, or it is His Word to us.

That's how he communicates better than anywhere else.

Yeah.

You might hear him speak audibly to you.

He might send a sign.

He might send us another person.

You might hear a great message.

But that Word is the number one way you can hear from God, even on a daily basis.

Yeah.

Jesus even said, that's the bread, you know, that we live by, is every word that comes from the Lord.

Right.

Like that man doesn't live by bread alone.

So that's good stuff.

Yeah.

Along with that, memorizing and meditating on key Scriptures.

So memorizing for some people is really hard.

But you'll have your favorites.

You'll have something that just speaks to you.

Hold it close.

If you have trouble remembering it word for word, get it in concept, understand what it's trying to tell you as best you can.

And that's where some of the.

That's how the meditation comes in.

I'm not talking about getting weird with candles or incense.

I'm talking about sitting and thinking on God's Word, running it through your head, all the different ways that it applies to you, how it speaks to you.

That is ultimately the greatest way we can meditate on Scripture.

It's continuously thinking about it until it becomes a part of us.

That's what that's talking about more than anything else.

And if you're one of those people that says, you know, well, memorization, I just can't do that, or it's hard.

I once heard a guy say, you know, hard things are worth doing.

Hard.

Yeah.

You know, and sometimes that's very true.

Like that is.

It's worth doing because that is the very thing that in the moment where.

Where your belt could be loosened, that you're going to be able to recite that truth and God will guide that so if you're not saving it, right, if you're not keeping it down deep and hiding it in your heart as scripture says, then it's not going to come back out.

You're not going to be able to utilize it.

So even if you're practicing memorizing, success doesn't mean you've got every word, word for word and every bit of it.

But the fact that you're pouring into it enough that you're trying to memorize it means that whenever the time comes, God is going to put those words on your lips and they're his words.

Yeah.

So another thing that's really important is finding a church, some kind of truth speaking community.

Could be a Bible study that meets weekly.

Find your people who want to do church together.

And I don't mean just on Sunday mornings.

Church is beyond a Sunday morning service.

What I'm talking about is find other believers who want to continue to go deeper in their faith and encourage you in your faith as well as you can encourage them.

That is what the church is for.

Ultimately, before anything else, we're trying to continue to look at it like a hospital where we're both applying balms, right.

And we're both wrapping each other's limbs.

Like we are constantly trying to help each other.

Faith is not meant to just do alone.

A lot of people fall for these lies and it is lies.

Like yes.

Is your faith personal?

Absolutely.

It is, because it is between you and God.

But it wasn't meant to stay just that way.

He designed the church.

He designed.

The reason that he sent people out to other people and churches formed is to continue to be there for one another and support one another.

We, Christ would pull aside, have a little time with the Father and then he'd have his inner 3 and his 12.

He was constantly pouring out into other people.

Yes, personal, but then immediately communal.

It's something we're supposed to do together.

We're made for relationship.

We're made for relationship with our Creator.

We're made for a relationship with each other.

We got to not think that we can do it on our own.

We leave ourselves prone to the enemy's attacks.

We need those that can help support us and strengthen us and help us put our armor on as often as possible.

It also helps us when it comes to understanding scripture, even memorizing.

It cannot be that way.

And they can help give us truth when we need to hear it.

My wife, I tell you what, if you're a man and wife and you're doing the Bible together, Man, you've got a one up.

Having God in your relationship or even in a friendship is so important.

And I will say this.

If you're.

Even if you're your best friend or you do it, which leads into another thing that we're getting ready to talk about.

But like, when you have someone that can see you in your nonsense and then speak truth into that situation, oh, my gosh, it is amazing.

My wife, sometimes I look at her, I'm like, you're a better pastor than me.

Because she will see me in moments of my ridiculousness and go, you know this.

And I'm like, yep, that's exactly right.

That is truth.

That is God's truth.

And I need to.

Well, it's interesting because some of the best armor requires someone to help you put it on.

Right.

And that alone is enough to say, help each other with that.

Scripture says that we're not to forsake the fellowship of believers, but if you need one extra step of proof.

Wolves are never talked about as a good thing in scripture.

So lone wolf Christianity, it should not be your main goal.

No, no.

But I know that this leads into one of your things that you feel very passionate about.

Right?

Yeah, yeah.

Is the honesty and Transparency.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

100%, man.

Like accountability in your relationships and just being able to speak the truth and just.

Man, I even hate.

I've been a part of churches where we've had to withhold information about why we're asking a pastor, a youth pastor, to step down.

I've been a part of churches that had to withhold the actual truth on that information.

And it led to an outcome that should have never been.

And so it's one of those things that.

Yeah, transparency, I don't care.

At whose sake, at some points, sometimes it doesn't matter.

Transparency is super important.

And I'm not saying giving other people's dirty laundry around.

I'm saying when it comes to you and your openness, sometimes other people need to hear your transparency.

Some people need to hear the dirt that you had to walk through because that's your testimony.

It allows them to know that they're not alone because they're probably walking through the same dirt and muck it could possibly be.

You don't know how something you went through can help someone else and you can find encouragement.

There's things that I.

Or like I said before, there's some of the worst things I've been through are.

At the time I thought they were.

And I've been able to use them to God's glory because he put me in a situation.

Like I've been there, done that to a degree, but also, I mean, like you said, transparency.

When you have relationships where you can be open about everything in life and most importantly, the things of God, it just takes everything to a whole nother level.

I have friendships that I can't speak God in as much.

And it hurts.

You know, it's weird.

One day I realized that I had gotten to the level in my faith, in my walk with Christ, that my relationships where I can't share my faith in that way with my friends, like there was something missing in that relationship.

And it hurts.

It hurts like I think about them all the time.

Yeah, I'm pretty.

When it comes to my beliefs, I'm pretty strongly opinionated.

Not that I can't have my mind changed to have a strong opinion on things.

And I truly believe that once you can get to a point where you can be transparent with everyone and anyone, regardless of who they are, and the only time that you hold things back is whenever it's not appropriate.

Right.

That's when you are holding things back not because of how you think they'll look at you or how they'll feel about whatever, but rather because it's.

This isn't the right place and time for this conversation.

Just because, you know, whether that's mixed company or whatever, that that is where you will find God working the greatest through you.

Not necessarily in you, but that too, but through you.

You will see all kinds of awesome things that, that God will do when you are to a point where you can just love on people, regardless of what that might look to them as.

You know what I mean?

Does that make sense?

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I know we're moving towards a wrap up.

Yep.

So truth then is.

We want to make sure you understand it is both defensive and.

Well, it's offensive too, but it's defensive in a way that it helps keep us protected, but it stabilizes, it helps us stand firm.

It brings the whole package together and without it, everything else doesn't have the strength that it should have.

It is so important to have truth in your minds, in your hearts that can carry on some of the biggest truths there.

Who God is, who Jesus is, who you are in Christ.

Those are huge things.

And I know I gave you a list earlier about a lot of how it breaks down a little bit, but yeah, it's the base.

And honestly, it's not enough to know the truth, but you gotta live the truth too.

I mean, and that's sometimes the hardest jump.

Right.

Like, sometimes that is the hardest jump.

Where you go from.

I have this knowledge of what the truth is into what I believe is wisdom and that's the practice thereof.

Truth, you know, practicing the truth.

Yeah.

They go hand in hand.

They do, they do.

But it's not enough to just know.

Yeah.

I mean, even scripture tells us demons know things, but it's when we put it into practice and that's where faith comes in.

Living out that faith, living out that truth and allowing that to conquer those lies that are going to come at us.

Yeah.

Sneak peek for next week.

We are going to be talking about breast plate of righteousness and how.

Right.

Standing with God protects our hearts.

Yeah.

That's what the breastplate does.

Vital organs, it's the protection of that.

So that's what we're going to be talking about next week.

Any final thoughts?

Final thoughts?

Well, obviously, as I said earlier, read Ephesians with us.

Come through step by step.

I hope you go through this whole series with us and I hope it's impactful.

I hope that it helps you or maybe helps a friend maybe, you know, someone that like this could really, any of this, any episode could really help.

And we hope that that goes out there.

We hope that God uses this to just, you know, continue to build his kingdom.

But for you, I would say, you know, that the truth about who you are in Christ and who God is is so foundational as you walk through this world.

It is hard to.

For the.

It's so much harder for our enemy to attack you when you are standing firth and firm in who you are and who God is.

Yep.

So my grandma had this saying is know who you are and whose you are.

Whose you are.

I love it.

Who you are and whose you are.

Yeah.

So that was.

She also said, shape up or ship out.

And that's how I think that's probably where my strong opinions came from when it came to people in the church.

You shape up or ship out.

I don't have time for the people who are unwilling to work on themselves.

Does that make sense?

Because I am a big mess, but at least I am trying to, you know, and that's, I think just.

Even the little baby steps are what matter.

I think we should all be wearing shirts as work in progress.

Yeah, 100%, 100%.

Shout out to one of our listeners who at least their name is work in progress.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that'd be cool.

That would be cool.

Because they're one of our biggest listeners and biggest supporters.

Yeah.

Work in progress.

Shout out to you.

Maybe we'll make you a shirt.

All right, so here's the reflection question this week for you guys.

Where in your life do you need to buckle down and secure yourself more firmly with truth?

I'm gonna read it one more time.

Where in your life do you need to buckle down and secure more firmly with truth?

Yep.

All right, so let us know.

Comment.

Don't forget questions.

There's gonna be a Q and A at the end of the episode, at the end of the series.

So all the questions that you guys submit, we will put compose together and talk about a little bit.

Don't forget to subscribe, like, share and keep comments along with your questions.

We love hearing what you're thinking, what you like, what you don't like.

We love what's.

What's ultimately, you know, the greatest thing we can get is, hey, if something helped you, we might not even have meant to say it.

But you know what?

Sometimes it happens.

And we love hearing how God's using this show.

So please let us know.

Keep sharing this to anyone that you think could benefit from it.

And that's, you know, constructive criticism is also welcome.

Yeah.

I mean, we're not perfect.

We want to.

To grow in this as well.

Yeah.

So please.

Yeah, bring it on.

We love you guys.

We thank you guys.

God bless.

Hey, thanks for joining us.

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